Telco CTO Summer Summit 2017 took place in St. Petersburg. For the third year running, the event was hosted by Peter-Service, Russian leading provider of BSS solutions to communications service providers.
As an international telecom industry forum, Telco CTO Summer Summit aims to bring together telecom operators, IT solution developers, industry experts and regulators. This year’s event attracted over 50 participants from 5 countries representing 15 companies.
At the summit’s opening, Dmitry Alkhazov, Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, welcomed the attendees, pointing out that the event was intended to facilitate the expansion of Russian software abroad and improve its export potential.
This year, the focus was on digital transformation, with most presentations and discussions centering around business transformation as a force driving change in IT.
Igor Gorkov, Managing Director of Peter-Service, commented on the event’s theme, “Essentially, digital transformation can be viewed as a case about vendors and operators working together. Operators have always been focused on business growth while vendors have traditionally been good at IT. Now the operators’ competences are converging with those of vendors. I believe that synergy will bring great results.”
The summit attendees, representatives of leading telecom companies in Russia and other countries, also recognized the importance of digital transformation.
Sergey Nikiforets, Director of Infrastructure Projects at MegaFon, said, “Digital transformation is a strategic priority; launching digital services gives great advantages to operators. The next important aspect I would like to mention is a shift towards a digital dialogue – between a company and its clients, between employees. Finally, it is crucial for operators to rethink their business processes, adopt agile development practices and ensure rapid rollouts of new products in order to meet customers’ expectations.”
Yorgos Ioannidis, General Manager at Lifecell Ventures, Turkcell subsidiary, commented on Turkcell’s approach to digital transformation, “Turkcell is taking the necessary steps of becoming a next generation digital services company. We define Turkcell as OTT services provider who happens to have a telecom license. We are no longer just a communications service provider. We have launched a range of applications that are hugely popular among our customers, such as BiP, a messaging app, TV+, a TV platform, and Fizy, a music streaming service, and we are looking to add smart home, smart car and smart education solutions to our portfolio.”
As part of the event’s program, the participants were invited to a round-table discussion on the telecom operators’ role in the IoT era. The speakers included Vitaly Nedelsky, President of the Russian Association of Industrial Internet (RAII), BCG experts, Telia Company, Rostelecom, Center 2M and Peter-Service representatives.
Kalev Reiljan, COO at Division X, Telia Company, highlighted the significance of the Internet of Things as a catalyst for digital transformation, “The Internet of Things is emerging as a new paradigm in the telecom market, encouraging operators to revamp their business models. With the advancement of the IoT, telecom operators will transform into platforms collecting a variety of unique information with added value. As a result, the market will undergo a fundamental change. The transformation process will be gradual, taking 10-20 years to complete, but it is already underway.”
Held in an informal, friendly atmosphere, Telco CTO Summer Summit 2017 helped identify the touch points between telecom operators and IT vendors in the new market environment, discuss the key aspects of digital transformation and understand how well market players are prepared to the upcoming changes.
